Most often, it’s something as simple as a typo or an old expiration date that’s causing the payment to fail. Don't use spaces or dashes in your card number. Additionally, make sure the billing address and postal code you enter matches the billing address and postal code on your credit card.

Confirm your card security code (CVV2 or CID)

This is typically a 3-digit code next to the signature line on the back of the card. For American Express, it's a 4-digit code on the front of the card above the card number on the right of the card.

Clear your cookies or try a different browser

If your browser stores your name and address, it might be auto-populating outdated information.

Contact your card issuer

If your billing information is accurate and your charge still won't go through, your card issuer may be blocking the payment. Card-issuing banks have many security measures in place for online purchases and subscriptions, especially when a card is being used for the first time.

If you're unable to edit your billing information because the window is opening a blank page, please check your browser's security settings. If you have strict security settings, the window may not open properly. Try temporarily lowering your security settings or use a different browser.

Pre-Authorization Charges

A pre-authorization charge or fee is a temporary funds hold that may show up on your credit card or banking statement as a pending charge. It's a test transaction commonly used by online retailers to make sure the card is valid before running the full charge. If the pre-authorization fee is refused by the bank or credit card company, the full charge is cancelled, and the purchase won't be processed.

When you update credit card details or billing contact information in your SurveyMonkey account, we sometimes place a pre-authorization like this on the card—it's just to make sure the new details are valid. This temporary authorization is not a permanent charge. It should be automatically removed from the card in the next few days (typically within 7 business days, depending on the bank) and the funds restored to your account. The void may be listed as a refund, or the pre-authorization fee may simply be deleted from your account history since it wasn't a real charge.

International Transaction Fees

Your card issuer or bank may add a currency conversion or foreign transaction fee to your payment. If you have a larger than expected charge, please contact your provider for information on what rates and fees may apply, as these are not controlled by or known to SurveyMonkey.

Charges on Expired or Outdated Cards

If your card has been updated but the card information in your SurveyMonkey account is out of date, you may see the charge posted to your new card.

When a payment is sent to a card issuer, our payment processor uses the card details stored in the SurveyMonkey account. If this information is outdated, the card issuer has two options: they can choose to use this information to accept the charge and post it on the updated card, or they can decline the charge. If they accept the charge and post it on the updated card, on our end we still see the outdated card details.

This is a relatively common situation when customers receive an updated card—the card issuer often continues to accept charges made to the outdated card for some time because they don’t want their customers to lose access to any paid subscriptions, like SurveyMonkey.